Birth date: Dec 18, 1933 Death date: Sep 1, 2025
Robert Arle Ashcraft, age 91, of Walhalla, South Carolina, passed away peacefully at the home of his daughter, Sheri Ashcraft, on September 1, 2025. Born on December 18, 1933, in Adrian, Michigan, Robert—affectionately known as Bo Read Obituary
You will be missed, you are missed my Dear friend and advisor. Your laughter, the jokes, sense of humor...thank you for being who you are loving and caring. For encouraging me to follow my dream. It was always a pleasure hanging out with you every evening. I was glued by sadness couldn't brought myself to stand and spoke on your behalf, but now I'm filled with both sadness and regrets.
Be safe love you.
Dear Sherrie and Susanna,
I am sorry to hear about the passing your Father. Please extend our sympathies to your entire family
Bob was a really wonderful gentleman and I enjoyed our time and lunches together. He was always such a positive and thoughtful guy, and he spoke of you and the kids with such loving care and kindness.
Sincerely,
Terry and Abigail
Dear Sherrie and Susanna,
I am sorry to hear about the passing your Father. Please extend our sympathies to your entire family
Bob was a really wonderful gentleman and I enjoyed our time and lunches together. He was always such a positive and thoughtful guy, and he spoke of you and the kids with such loving care and kindness.
Sincerely,
Terry and Abigail
God bless you, Robert.
We are Tammy, Lynn, and Jan….three of Bob’s Ashcraft’s many children…. the many children whose lives he touched….
Childhood friends of his beautiful daughter, Sheri and ourselves daughters of his sphere of influence, Bob was not just a teacher but a father figure to us as well.
Whenever we were hanging out with Sheri, Bob graciously welcomed us into his home with genuine warmth. He was truly interested in and inquisitive about our well-being, our thoughts, and plans for the future.
As our teacher, he was a gatekeeper to a greater world for us, cracking the door open to our future, and showing us that there was so much more beyond our little five stoplight, southern Appalachian foothills town, and challenging us to expand our view of the world ….and ourselves.
He was the only man that we had ever known that had lived and worked in Africa, which was almost incomprehensible to small town girls in the Deep South. He was the embodiment of the greater good enlightened cultural movement of the 60s and 70s, reflected in JFK’s remark, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
Even though we went on to pursue higher education and careers after high school, Bob was still with us. His fierce work ethic followed us into our own careers as two nurses and a physical therapist. He inspired us to believe in and challenge ourselves, to not give up when things were tough and to do the hard work…..and his influence did not end with us. It extended to the thousands of patients that we have treated and continue to treat.
We hope that Bob would be proud of us and the lives that we have been able to touch through his influence. We are surely proud to have known him. We are deeply grateful to Bob Ashcraft for the impact he had on our lives. We will remember his kindness, his smile, laughter, exuberant energy, but most of all we will remember how he showed us genuine love and care, as if we were his own daughters.
Epitaph
When I die
Give what’s left of me away
To children
And old men that wait to die.
And if you need to cry,
Cry for your brother
Walking the street beside you.
And when you need me,
Put your arms
Around anyone
And give them
What you need to give to me.
I want to leave you something,
Something better
Than words
Or Sounds.
Look for me
In the people I’ve known
Or loved,
And if you cannot give me away,
At least let me live on your eyes
And not on your mind.
You can love me most
By letting
hands touch hands,
By letting
Bodies touch bodies,
And by letting go
Of children
That need to be free.
Love doesn’t die,
People do.
So, when all that’s left of me
Is love,
Give me away.
I’ll see you at home
In the earth.
-Merrit Malloy
Beloved friends, me and Vitor send our condolences to you! We wish you comfort and peace as you go through this difficult time!
Family, Irene and I send our condolences to you. It was a special joy to have Bob in the church choir for so long. We have and will continue to miss him!
